24 November 2010

Museums coming alive - at night

By: Zongezile Matshoba

It is with great interest to note that museums are doing great efforts to accommodate everyone, even at night. Firstly it was Cathy Lambley of Albany Museum’s the Education Department that did not want to miss such opportunity and fun, influenced by the movie, Night of the Museum 1, 2 and 3, by Shawn Levy. Lambley called her monthly programme Bedtime Stories. Children, armed with torches kindly donated by Pick n Pay’s John Campbell, sit around her listening to lovely museum related stories before exploring the dark galleries (lights are deliberately switched off).

Seemingly, another Eastern Cape museum, East London Museum has followed suite. Its programme which last about an hour-and-a-half starts with supper at 6pm, followed by the night tour at 7pm.

Friends of the museums, visitors, students, clubs, NGOs, CBOs, businesses, and government departments really need to come to the party and support ventures of this kind. Museums use this profit to sustain themselves.